The Turkish Embassy in Korea and Suwon City in Gyeonggi Province inaugurated a new park in memory of a school and orphanage established some 60 years ago during the Korean War by Turkish soldiers.Called “Ankara School” by the soldiers, the orphanage grew rapidly and accommodated some 100 children at a time, ranging in age from 5 to 15. It was said to have taught them music, Turkish and English. A total of 800 Korean children passed through the school.The orphanage cared for children through the

Venezuela’s Independence Day celebration took on special significance during a reception in Seoul on Friday in the wake of the diplomatic raucous caused when some European nations closed their airspace to Bolivian President Evo Morales’ plane. Charge d’Affaires Yadira Hidalgo de Ortiz, the South American country’s top diplomatic representative in South Korea, repeatedly underscored her country’s sovereignty and national independence in a thinly veiled reference to the international incident duri

Facing down the snarled traffic that is an everyday headache in Kabul will be crucial for President Hamid Karzai to win the peace after the U.S.’ planned withdrawal in December 2014, according to the country’s transport minister.Afghan Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Daoud Ali Najafi was in Seoul last week to ink an MOU with his South Korean counterpart, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation Suh Seoung-hwan.“One way to help Afghanistan win the peace is by better providing

Charles de Gaulle underscored the French trend of marking itself out from its European neighbors ― not to mention the United States ― by recognizing Maoist China in 1964, the first major Western European country to do so.As France and China now look to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of those ties next year, France continues to stand apart from Europe, this time in its diplomatic approach to North Korea.“What we want is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We do not

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei ― The foreign ministers of Seoul and Tokyo held their first talks on Monday in an apparent effort to mend bilateral relations strained by historical and territorial feuds.The 25-minute conversation between Yun Byung-se and Kishida Fumio took place on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Brunei. It is the region’s largest security conference with 27 countries participating, including North Korea, the U.S., China and Russia. Yun scrapped a trip to Tokyo in April

The Egyptian Embassy in South Korea brought critically acclaimed 2006 film “The Yacoubian Building,” seen for the first time by the general public, to a local theater in Seoul on Friday. Based on the 2002 novel by Alaa Al Aswany, “The Yacoubian Building” sketches comic yet heart-wrenching portrayals of the vagaries of the human heart. “The Yacoubian Building” is a searing indictment of Egyptian society under now-deposed strongman Hosni Mubarak and his decades of oppressive and corrupt misrule.Th

The Azerbaijani Embassy in South Korea hosted a reception to mark the 95th anniversary of the establishment of the country’s armed forces at a hotel in Seoul on Tuesday.The event was attended by members of South Korea’s Defense Ministry, members of the Azerbaijani military and of the foreign diplomatic community here in Seoul.The Azerbaijani Embassy has said that the main objective of its country’s foreign policy currently is the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict “

Belarus emphasized the importance of people-to-people ties with Korea when it celebrated its National Day at a hotel in Seoul on Tuesday.“Expanding people-to-people contacts, as well as deepening mutual understanding and supporting each other in the international arena, have virtually shortened the geographical distance between Belarus and Korea,” Belarusian Ambassador to Korea Natallia Zhylevic said in welcome remarks during the reception. Belarus supported Korea’s bid for a seat on the United